Cleaning dabber



March 24, 1959 T, E, THORPE 2,878,500

' CLEANING DABBR Filed Aug. 3l, 1955 .arroPA/EY CLEANIWG DABBER ThomasEdward Thorpe, London, England Application August 31, 1955, Serial No.531,630

Claims priority, application Great Britain October 13, 1954 2 Claims.(Cl. 15-134) The present invention relates to cleaning dabbers forcapping liquid containers to form reservoir cleaning devices and moreparticularly to the kind comprising an absorbent pad which is supportedby a perforated plate or a plate adapted to be perforated and throughwhich the cleaning liquid is supplied to meisten the pad when the deviceis used. Theser devices are more particularly intended for dabbingfabric material and sparingly applying thereto volatile cleansing liquidsuch as carbon tetrachloride to remove grease and other stains -from thefabric.

The present invention aims at providing an improved dabber of the kinddescribed which will facilitate assem bly to the container, lessen therisk of the liquid escaping p otherwise than through the pad and willconduce tor effective closuring of the dabber to avoid loss, e.g., byevaporation of the cleaning liquid.

The dabber unit according to the present invention cornprises a crownring, a pad-supporting plate adapted or adaptable by perforation orotherwise to allow a volatile liquid to pass through the plate to anabsorbent pad, and an absorbent pad peripherally clamped on thepad-supporting plate, the crown ring having an outer face (adapted toco-operate under mechanical pressure with a co-operating face of anouter closure member to form an outer liquid-tight seal between thecrown ring and the outer closure member) and an inner face (adapted toco-operate under mechanical pressure with the top of a bottle or othercontainer to form an inner liquid-tight seal between the said top andthe crown ring) and means whereby the crown ring may be secured to theneck of the bottle or other container, the crown ring or crown ring andpad-supporting plate being adapted to prevent liquid from passingperipherally between the said outer and inner seals. When the saiddabber unit is sealingly clamped onto a bottle or other container escapeof liquid from the container is prevented save by way of the exposedpart of the pad. The crown ring and the pad-supporting plate may be madein one piece and may be pressed so as to compress and grip the margin ofthe pad, e.g., the said margin may be gripped by a continuouschannel-section margin of .the pad-supporting plate lying adjacent theunder surface of and integrally joined to the crown ring by a bend whichforms the inner perimeter of the crown ring. The crown ring ispreferably formed integrally with an axially extending outer skirt whichis adapted to be deformed for permanently securing the ring to thebottle or other container, the skirted crown ring and pad-supportingplate forming a cap with a centrally situated recess for the absorbentpad and with the pad-supporting plate providing a lirm seating for theabsorbent pad. The seating is preferably of domed or part sphericalform.

Such a dabber-cap can be suitably secured to the neck of a bottle orother container, preferably by peening or spinning the skirt of the capunder a shoulder, e.g., formed by a groove, in the external wall of aneck of the bottle or container, which peening or spinning operation isdone 2,878,500 Patented Mar. 24, 1959 after the container has 'beenvcharged with the cleansing liquid.

For sealing the dabber unit to a container a resilient sealing ring ordisc may be clamped between the dabberunit and the top of the bottle orother container so that there is no escape path for the volatile liquidin the container save through the exposed part of the pad. A sealingdisc may be employed having at least one perforation (a singleperforation is generally preferred) and it is advantageous to arrangefor this perforation and a single perforation in the supporting plate tobe out of registration and for the adjacent surfaces of the plate andsealing disc to be in close proximity to restrict ilow between therespective perforations.

The invention also includes a preferred method of peripherally clampingan absorbent pad on the padupporting plate wherein the absorbent pad islaid in the centrally situated recess and the bottom of the recess andthe top of the crown ring around the recess are pressed towards oneanother causing the metal to be deformed so that the peripheral wall ofthe recess and the periphery of the supporting plate forming the bottomof the recess are compressed on to and grip the peripheral margin of theabsorbent pad. Preferably, as a result of the pressing operation, theperipheral wall of the recess is collapsed to lie under the crown ringand substantially parallel with the said crown ring and with the marginof the bottom of the recess, and advantageously as a result of thepressing operation the bottom of the recess is domed and the absorbentpad rmly stretched over it. The absorbent pad may be formed by acircular disc of woollen fabric material.

An important advantage of a dabber unit according to the invention isthat the crown ring forms an external sealing surface for co-operatingwith the co-operating surface of the crown of an outer closure memberwhich is conveniently a screw cap which engages threads on'the neck ofthe container and in being screwed home tightly clamps a sealing ring ordisc between the said co-operat ing surfaces. The said co-operatingsurfaces may be at, domed or spheroidal. A disc may be used as thesealing member between the outer cap and the crown ring and this may bea cork disc which may be coated, or faced, e.g., with a metal foil, orthe disc may be made of a suitable resilient synthetic plastic or rubbermaterial, eg., that sold under the registered trademark Thiokol, the aimbeing to avoid attack on the disc by the liquid in the container. Asimilar sealing element may be used, if 'desired, between the dabberunit and the top of the bottle or container.

The centre portion of the outer cap may be a raised dome to accommodatethe domed centre of the sealing disc overlying the domed absorbent pad.

With the outer cap screwed home, the charged container is securelysealed and when the outer cap is removed the liquid will escape by wayofthe exposed area of the pad. As an additional security against loss ofliquid during transit from factory to shop of the closured container, asleeve of sealing material, such as a strip of a suitable thermoplasticmaterial, may be sealed across the outer cap and the neck of thecontainer.

The invention is illustrated by way of example on an enlarged vscale inthe accompanying drawing which shows in Fig. 1 a cross-sectional viewthrough a bottle neck tted with the dabber unit. Fig. 2 shows asuitable'form of stamping with a disc of absorbent material in placeready for a pressing operation to form the dabber unit in accordancewith the preferred method of clamping.

Referring to Fig. 1, the bottle or other container may be of anysuitable shape and the neck 1 thereof is an nularly grooved at 2 andbelow the groove is externally screwthreaded at 3.

T he dabber unit comprises a circular supporting plate 4 with a centralperforationfS, e.g., of 0.05" in diameter, and supports anabsorbent pad6, which is exposed in the central aperture of a crown ring 7. Theperforation may be formed after the reservoir cleaning device has beenfilled and assembled. The margin of the pad is gripped by a continuouschannel-section margin of the supporting plate, the overlying portion 8of which lies adjacent the under surface of, and is integrally joined tothe crown ring 7 by a bend which forms the inner perimeter of the saidcrown ring and the perimeter of the recess in which the pad is exposed.The crown ring 7 is integrally connected with an axially extending skirt9, thus forming with the supporting plate 4 a cap with a central recessexposing the pad and providing a firm seating for the pad. The pad 6 isof a woollen fabric material.

The illustrated dabber cap is made from one piece of thin gauge metal,which (see Fig. 2) is in the form of a cap-like stamping 17 formed witha central recess 18, the portion 7a eventually forming the crown ring 7,the portion 9a forming the skirt 9, the bottom 4a of the recess formingthe supporting plate 4 and the peripheral wall 8a forming the aforesaidoverlying portion 8. The circular disc of fabric material 6 is laid onthe bottom of the recess, and then by a pressing operation the bottom 4aof the recess and the crown-ring portion 7a are pressed towards oneanother, causing the peripheral wall 8a of the recess to be collapsed tolie close against the underside of the crown ring and to compress andclamp the margin of the pad between itself and the margin of the bottomof the recess. As a result of the pressing operation, the metal isdeformed so that the crown ring and the peripheral wall portion adjacentto it close in radially and the bottom of the recess and the adjacentend portion of the peripheral wall are extended radially outwards sothat the pad will be effectively clamped and secured 'rmly over thesupporting plate, which as a result of the pressing operation is given adome or spherical form, the crown ring exposing a circular portion ofthe pad which protrudes through the aperture in the ring and thesupporting plate rmly seating the pad. If a suitably thin metal, e.g.,of 0.011" in thickness is employed for the stamping an appreciable stepbetween the periphery and the bottom of the recess and the inside of thecrown ring can be avoided in the pressed unit although the pad-grippingportions of the cap are narrower than the width of the crown ring, and,with the aid of a compressible sealing disc or ring, a good surface sealcan be obtained between the top edge face of the glass or othercontainer and the cap. In the pressing operation the crown ring and thewall 8a are also shaped to a spherical or dome form.

A sealing disc is provided. This may be of cork, preferably with afacing or coating on one or both sides to resist attack by the liquid,or may be of any suitable resilient material resistant to such attack.The disc has a small hole 11.

With the sealing disc arranged on the inside of the cap, the cap and thedisc are applied together to the neck of the bottle and sealed theretoby pressure on the cap and peening or spinning the free end of the skirt9 thereof under the shoulder formed by the aforesaid groove 2.

The crown ring extends radially outwards beyond the periphery of thechannel-like margin of the plate and the sealing disc is sealed to theinner face thereof and to the The hole 11 is shown as registering withthe hole 5, but it may be out of registration therewith so that, sincethe disc and the plate are disposed with their adjacent surfaces inclose proximity the How from the hole in the disc to the hole in theplate is desirably restricted.

The external surface of the crown-ring 7 provides a seating for asealing member employed between an outer cap 12 and the inner cap.

The outer cap, likewise of metal, has a screw-threaded skirt 13 toco-operate with the threads of the bottle neck and its crown is formedwith a marginal annulus 14 j which, when the outer cap is screwed home,compresses top face of the neck of the container. The said channelshapedmargin prevents any escape of liquid from the perimeter of the pad.

the margin of the sealing member 15 between itself and the crown ring ofthe dabber unit. The crown of the outer cap has a central raised dome 16to accommodate the central zone of the sealing member 1S, and to definethe marginal annulus 14. The parts may be proportioned so that themember 15 presses against the domed outer face of the pad.

WhatI claim is:

1. A dabber unit adapted for capping a bottle or other liquid containerto form a reservoir cleaning device and comprising a crown ring, apad-supporting plate and a substantially disc shaped absorbent pad, thesaid supporting plate having a continuous inwardly openingchannel-section margin lying adjacent the under surface of andintegrally joined to the said ring by a bend which forms the innerperimeter of the ring, the plate and the ring being thereby integrallyconnected to form a unit, the pad being peripherally clamped by saidchannel section margin and the supporting plate being pressed upwardlyinto a substantially dome shape to stretch said pad to form asubstantially continuous curved surface with said crown ring, and theouter perimeter of the crown ring being integral with an axiallyextending skirt whereby the unit may be secured to the container, theouter face of the said ring being adapted to co-operate with aco-operating face of an outer closure member to form an outerliquid-tight seal and the inner face of the said unit being adapted toco-operate with the top of the container to form an inner liquid-tightseal so that liquid is prevented from passing peripherally between theinner and outer seals.

2. A dabber unit according to claim 1 in which said skirt is deformedunder a shoulder on the bottle, a sealing disc is clamped between theunder marginal face of the said unit and the top of the container, thesaid disc hav ing at least one perforation for the passage of liquid tothe said plate, and a cap member secured over the dabber unit to thebottle and a sealing member clamped between the crown of said cap andthe outer surface of the said crown ring.

References Cited in the tile of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS420,785 Gustafson Feb. 4, 1890 1,243,967 Nielsen Oct. 23, 1917 1,481,733Paull Jan. 22, 1924 1,491,643 Tanenbaum Apr. 22, 1924 1,918,215 RunnelsJuly 11, 1933 1,947,667 Von Till Feb. 20,1934 2,095,423 Tilley Oct. 12,1937 FOREIGN PATENTS 689,636 Great Britain Apr. 1, 1953 861,147 GermanyDec. 29, 1952

